{"id":502489,"date":"2026-03-18T21:03:05","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T01:03:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.net\/en\/uncategorized\/argentina-calls-up-messi-and-adds-new-faces-for-friendly-against-guatemala\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T21:03:05","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T01:03:05","slug":"argentina-calls-up-messi-and-adds-new-faces-for-friendly-against-guatemala","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/uncategorized\/argentina-calls-up-messi-and-adds-new-faces-for-friendly-against-guatemala\/","title":{"rendered":"Argentina calls up Messi and adds new faces for friendly against Guatemala"},"content":{"rendered":"<strong>BUENOS AIRES.<\/strong> \u2014 The Argentina national football team announced its list of call-ups for the friendly against Guatemala, with the return of its captain Lionel Messi and the inclusion of new figures, in a match that will serve as preparation for the 2026 World Cup.\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>You may be interested in; <\/strong>\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/ab.deultimominuto.net\/deportes\/futbol\/noche-de-leyendas-termina-2-2-entre-fc-barcelona-y-real-madrid-en-santo-domingo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Night of Legends\u201d ends 2-2 between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid in Santo Domingo<\/a><\/p>\n\n\nThe coach Lionel Scaloni announced the squad for the match on March 31st at La Bombonera, which will mark the farewell of the albiceleste team to their fans before the World Cup.\n\nAmong the main novelties, the presence of the young Gianluca Prestianni stands out, as well as the first call-ups of defenders Tom\u00e1s Palacios and Gabriel Rojas, in a clear commitment to expand the variants in the defensive zone.\n\nThe list also maintains the base of the world champion team, with names like Juli\u00e1n \u00c1lvarez, Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez and Alexis Mac Allister, in addition to references like Leandro Paredes, Marcos Acu\u00f1a and Gonzalo Montiel, who currently play in Argentine football.\n\nRegarding absences, Lautaro Mart\u00ednez and Lisandro Mart\u00ednez were not included, both out due to injuries, as well as Franco Mastantuono, who did not manage to establish himself in this stage with the national team.\n\nThe match against Guatemala takes on special relevance, as it could represent one of Messi&#8217;s last matches with the national team on Argentine soil, depending on his participation in future friendly matches prior to the World Cup.\n\nThe Albiceleste is in Group J of the World Cup along with Algeria, Austria and Jordan, and will debut on June 16 in Kansas City.\n\nBefore the start of the tournament, Scaloni&#8217;s team plans to play at least two additional friendlies on US soil, fine-tuning details for the defense of the title.\n\nWith this call-up, Argentina combines experience and youth in the quest to arrive in optimal conditions at the world&#8217;s biggest football event.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BUENOS AIRES. \u2014 The Argentina national football team announced its list of call-ups for the friendly against Guatemala, with the return of its captain Lionel Messi and the inclusion of new figures, in a match that will serve as preparation for the 2026 World Cup. You may be interested in; \u201cNight of Legends\u201d ends 2-2 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":972,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-502489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phj1q1-26IF","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","dum_api":{"author_name":"Yamell Rossi","author_image":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/cropped-7a176880-76f8-4b0c-9527-4e34feef45e4-96x96.jpg","categories_name":["Uncategorized"],"featured_media_url":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/972"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502489\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}